@martha, no thanks are appropriate. I received a phone call informing me of something that happened while I was serenely gnawing on toast. Had I seen it, I would have photographed it, and had I photographed it, I'd have posted the best picture.

I see coyotes daily at work. You don't realize how close they can get till you're in a remote area of the site and the emergency sirens go off which causes the coyotes to start howling. At that point you realize they are in the tall grass 20 feet away.

As for

They need sharpshooters to kill them varmints. What if the coyotes were gnawing on a child?Personal responsibility dictates a firearm in the house being used to dispatch the coyote gnawing on your child.

The grounds keeper in the movie Tin Cup needed to use coyotes ( prarie wolves )instead of dynamite. But then the ending would have been torture instead of blowing the cute little prarie dogs up with a predator drone fired hellfire missile.

I have my own two coyotes roaming about our Westchester, NY neighborhood, also. They both have radio collars. I have watched them for extended periods either just sitting quietly waiting for deer (which are more than plentiful) or jumping about after woodchucks or rabbits. Last summer, I even found the entire rear legbone of a deer (completely cleaned) in the backyard.

Had a lot of coyote encounters over the years. They're not cowards as much as pragmatists, bold but not willing to risk anything for no gain.

I'd chase after them every so often so they would get to know not to stalk around my house.

My mom, who still lives in the area, had kept cages of doves in the car overnight during a fire danger, in expectation of having to do a quick evacuation.

I happened by late that evening, noticed the door of the car open. I go up to shut it. A coyote comes out of the car. Two doves dead, eaten from between the bars of the cages. Another had totally lost its tail feathers. They were cooing. I was absolutely assured the doors had been shut tight. A neighbor told me a bit later that coyotes in the area had learned how to open car doors--they had had a whole bag of dog food eaten up.

Benefit is that between the coyotes and the bobcats, I've only once seen a house cat in the neighborhood, and that one only once.

A couple of years ago, I happened upon a fairly large, dead varmint on the ground near my gas grill behind my house. My area is totally suburban, with perhaps two miles to the nearest undeveloped land. Anyhow, I was really too tired to mess with the dead varmint (about 2 feet long) and since the next day was Saturday, I figured I would get rid of it in the morning. Well, the next morning at 7 AM it was gone without a trace! Needless to say, there was a bigger varmint who carried the dead varmint away. I had never seen one of the dead one and certainly have no idea what carted it away for a nocturnal snack. I think there is quite a plethora of animals who have learned to find a livable niche in our suburban and exurban areas, right under our noses. They get in and out of fenced yards, often with a trophy, and they usually don't leave any trace of their visits. Really rather fascinating to us biology types.

Fred4Prez - Great story. Some animal loving girls need an education in real life, like that....Probably blamed it on the messenger - you...

We have entered into a new period where we have lost control of wildlife management in some areas of the country thanks to misguided animal rights activists lawsuits, and overly restrictive anti-gun discharge, anti-hunting ordinances. And lifestyle changes.

Especially a boom in deer and now, wild pig. Tough enough to fend off coyotes, untroubled by apex predators that the Native Americans wiped out...and by insistance For the Children! The Children!. that we do not introduce remaining apex predators - wolf packs, grizzlies, mountain lions - back into well-settled regions of America.

So we live with a high death rate from deer hits, more disease like Lyme, and the impossibility of having a garden or some very desired landscaping vegetation in many sections of the country without expensive deer fencing installed.

"From what I've read, the coyote-approaching-human problem in California is in part due to a long drought that is pressuring all the animals, including the predators."

On what science is that based?! Coyote numbers everywhere have exploded; they approach prey that don't fight back, and humans now don't fight back. After all, as a Field and Game person said, "they were here first."

The funny thing is in a lot of places the coyotes were not there first. We were.

Coyote numbers and range have increased since the European settlers showed up.

Why? Wolves. Wolves had a much larger range than coyotes, but we killed all the wolves. Coyotes are much better at surviving around people than wolves are, so they moved into a lot of areas that used to be wolf country.

I do not mind some wildlife in the yard. The deer are brazen where I live and the biggest nusiance. We have occasional coyotes and bobcats, lots of foxes, and once in a while a bear or a cougar. I can tolerate that provided that any big predatory animal that starts losing its fear of people has to be culled and culled quick.

Personally, if the coyotes, bobcats and cougars worked on the deer a bit more I would appreciate it.

A coyote killed and ate my cat. The depth of my too-late, protective anger took me by surprise. For a period of about 3 mos post-mortem, I think if it had shown its varmint face, I could and would have killed it with my bare hands - or with the help of any nearby rock.